A Good Friday Liturgy

The significance of the liturgy of Good Friday is that this day represents the climax of Holy Week, the day of Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Commentators who analyze the religious significance of that day say that it commemorates the greatest humiliation of the Messiah, but it is out of the death of Jesus that the Resurrection and glory of the Christian religion proceed. As Smith (481) puts it: "The whole business [of the condemnation and betrayal of Jesus] was inelegant at best. But what an amazing outcome." Smith continues:

The servant gave his life, and in so doing he gave a life to those who observed his suffering. Observers came to realize what had happened. . . . They acknowledged that their survival was the result of the work of the servant (Smith 481-2).

That result, in theologian Paul Tillich's analysis, is best formulated as the New Being, which is Tillich's name for the historical importance

. . .
ituation of the Christian is simul peccator, simul justus ("at the same time unjust and just," namely, justified) is not a paradox beside the christological paradox: that Jesus is the Christ. Historically and systematically, everything else in Christianity is a corroboration of the simple assertion that Jesus is the Christ. . . . The paradox is a new reality and not a logical riddle (Tillich 92). The traditional liturgy of Good Friday is that a mass does not take place. Indeed, traditionally the church altar is stripped of all decoration, and on Good Friday there is a service that commemorates the prophecies of Jesus' appearance, betrayal, and glory, as well as Stations of the Cross. However, a clue to the reason for a Good Friday mass can be obtained from Brennan Hill's description of the significance of the Passion and Crucifixion as contained in the gospel of John. He explains that John's account "presents the divine dimension of Jesus that becomes so evident to his followers after Jesus was glorified in resurrection. Here Jesus is a strong, majestic figure who chooses death fully aware that he will live again" (Hill 171). Hill's interpretation of Good Friday is that it embraces the paradox of glory in death and anticipates t
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